Sleeping With My Boss: A Standalone Novel (An Alpha Billionaire Romance Love Story) (A Dirty Office Romance) (129 page)

“It won’t be, sir, I assure you,” I told
him sincerely. I just wanted to get back to business as usual, if that was
going to be possible. I glanced over at Cyrus, the associate Hal had sent in
his place.

“No theatrics, Judge,” Cyrus assured. “Mr.
Rogers is very serious about this case and the press is only a distraction to
him, as well.”

“Okay then,” Judge Newman told us. “We
will commence with the opening statements on Monday as planned. Thank you for
coming, gentlemen.”

Cyrus and I both thanked the judge and
went separate directions after leaving his chambers.

As I was leaving, I met Mac coming up the
steps of the courthouse.

“I’m sorry, I got held up in traffic,” he
told me. “How did it go?”

“Good, I think. He agreed we could go on
with the case as if none of this had happened, as long as we promise not to
create a circus in his courtroom, as he put it.”

Mac chuckled. “Did you tell him we would
try, but we can’t speak for that clown, Rogers?”

I laughed. “I would have, if I thought the
judge had a sense of humor,”

“So, how about we get an early lunch, or
late breakfast? I’m starved.”

“I’m going to pass, thanks,” I told him.
“I have something kind of important I need to take care of.”

I left the courthouse and headed for the
office. After checking in with Marie, I returned a few calls, and then asked
her to let anyone who was looking for me know that I’d be in conference the
rest of the afternoon. I then called Romaletti’s and made a few arrangements. I
hoped Alicia didn’t have a big lunch while she was out with her mother; I had
plans for her this afternoon.

CHAPTER SEVEN

ALICIA

After I hung up with Adam, I showered and
dressed. I was nervously waiting for David to call back. When he did, I told
him what Adam said and the little bastard laughed.

“Afraid to meet me alone, are you? I find
that laughable, considering the people you’ve been keeping company with lately.
They are quite a collection of murderers and thieves.”

“When and where?” I wasn’t in the mood to
engage him in his mind games.

“Friday morning, six a.m., at the café
attached to the Motel 6 off of Highway 414.”

“Okay, we’ll be there.” I hung up quickly.
For some reason, talking to that man made me feel dirty.

After breakfast, my mother and I went out
to do some more Christmas shopping. We planned to meet my father at the Met
just before two, and then I would go into the office and hopefully spend the
afternoon getting some work done.

We had yet to hear back from the judges on
our open cases. I didn’t even know if I had cases any longer or if we’d be
thrown out or reassigned. I also had to call Miles IV. That was not a
conversation I was looking forward to at all. I did my best to put it all out
of my mind for the duration of the morning. For the most part, I did a good job
and we had a nice time. Mother is an acquired taste, but I do love her, and I
realized having her all to myself for a few hours that I’d really missed times
like that.

I dropped her at the Met at one-thirty, so
she and Daddy could find their seats before the show began. My father had used
a car service and the driver would be picking them up and returning them to the
apartment after the show. I made plans to meet them back there for dinner that
evening after I finished up at work. I headed downtown to the office from
there; traffic was light and I made it there in only fifteen minutes.

When I arrived, I wasn’t surprised to find
Carla hard at work at her desk. I opened my office door, expecting to see the
same mess I had last time. I should have known better. With Marie and the
housekeeping staff’s help, Carla had scrubbed and shined every visible piece of
furniture. The carpet had been cleaned and the place looked and smelled like
brand new. I could almost forget what had happened the day before until I began
sorting through the messages Carla had left on my desk. Just as I was about to
start returning calls, my phone rang. Not waiting for Carla, I picked up the
call,

“Alicia Winston,”

“Hi, it’s your boss, and your fiancé,
though not necessarily in that order,” Adam said on the other end. “Do you have
time to come up to the roof?”

“Excuse me?” I said with a giggle. “The
roof?”

“Yes, please,” was his simple reply, and
then he hung up. I looked at the phone in my hand in disbelief.

I took the service elevator to the top of
the building and then the stairs to the roof access. The building was thirty
stories tall, and the view was beautiful above the line of smog that usually
hung over the city. I looked around for Adam, and found him standing next to a
small folding table. It was covered with a white linen tablecloth that held a
vase in the center with a beautiful red rose. On either side of that sat two
covered silver serving trays, and a basket of bread that smelled so fresh it
made my mouth water.

“What is all of this?”

Adam bowed slightly at the waist and said,
“Your lunch is served, my lady.” He pulled out my chair, and I sat down. I was
smiling so hard it almost hurt. I couldn’t believe with all he was going
through that he had done this for me.

Adam sat across from me and clapping his
hands gently twice, he summoned our waiter. It was Romaletti’s best waiter. He
came right over and removed the tops from our trays. My senses were assaulted
at once by the delicious aroma of shrimp linguini. The waiter popped the cork
on a bottle of wine and poured us each a glass.

When I looked at Adam, he said, “I think
we deserve just one glass, Tony here has coffee for us afterwards.”

“Well, in that case…” I lifted my glass.
Adam lifted his, as well, and as we clinked them together he said,

“To us.”

“To us,” I agreed.

Before Tony discreetly disappeared, he lit
an outdoor furnace that must have been brought out for the occasion. Adam had
thought of everything. We dined and made small talk about my visit thus far
with my parents, both of us were careful to leave the serious talk for later.

After we finished our entrée, Tony
reappeared with dessert. Although I had thought I’d not be able to eat another
bite, the chocolate volcano Tony sat before me with a steaming cup of coffee on
the side proved too much to resist. After we finished dessert, a soft music
began playing and Adam stood and asked, “May I have this dance?”

I gave him my hand, and we danced slowly
to the music, both of us trying to live only in this moment. As the music came
to an end, Adam kissed me softly. That one soft kiss ignited a passion in us
both, and Adam led me over to the side of the roof where a small tent had been
set up. I raised an eyebrow.

“I was hoping…”

I smiled and nodded, and he led me inside.
The music started up again as he lay me down on a soft air mattress covered
with a feather blanket. He kissed my eyelids, my nose, my cheeks, and my ears
before starting on my neck. He nuzzled his face into my soft flesh, causing me
to moan.

My moans urged him on, and he began to
unbutton my blouse slowly, kissing each part of my chest as he did so. He
kissed and tickled my stomach softly with his tongue as he pushed away the
fabric of my blouse, running his fingers softly across the tops of my breasts.
I arched my back, and he slipped his hand underneath me, unhooking my bra and
allowing my breasts to escape. He moved his mouth back up and used it to set my
body on fire.

When I couldn’t take it any longer, I
began to pull at the fabric of Adam’s shirt and pants. I suddenly needed to
feel his hot flesh against mine. He stood up and stripped down as I finished
doing the same.

Neither of us felt the cold as we lit our
own fire in each other’s bodies, making love that went from soft and gentle to
passionate and urgent. When we finished, our bodies were glistening with sweat
– in New York City in December at the top of a thirty story building.

I lay there in Adam’s arms, never wanting
this day to end. Unfortunately, however, it would have to. I promised my
parents I’d be home for dinner with them, and I couldn’t disappoint them. I had
a sudden idea though.

“How’d you like to come to dinner tonight
and meet the parents?” I asked Adam.

The look he gave me was almost comical.
“Really?”

“Yes, really, I think it’s about time,
don’t you?”

Adam sat up and scratched his head. “Well,
since I just ravaged their daughter out in the open in broad daylight I suppose
I do owe them at least a meeting.”

I laughed. “I think we should leave that
part out of the conversation tonight, okay?”

“Okay, if you insist,” Adam said with a
grin. “I’ll have to come up with another opener.”

I pulled him back down and kissed him
hard. “Thank you so much for all of this; it was so wonderful,”

“You are very welcome,” he said. “When all
of this craziness has passed, we’ll do things like this all the time, I
promise.” Then, turning more serious he continued, “Will you really still want
to marry me if we have to start over?”

I propped myself up on one elbow. “Of
course I will. I hope you know that money and power are not what’s important to
me here. I want to be with you. We can work on the rest of it together, right?”

“Right,” he said with a smile. “Thank
you.”

After we dressed and straightened up a
bit, we went back inside. Tony had somehow cleared up the table and the dishes
while we were…otherwise engaged. I was suddenly embarrassed at the thought that
maybe he heard us. I’d forgotten all about him.

“What are you thinking?” Adam asked me.
“You’re blushing.”

“I was just wondering if Tony…”

“He’d be too discreet to say so if he
did,” Adam assured me.

“I know,” I said, still just a little
embarrassed, but thinking it had been worth it either way.

Once I got back to my office, I managed to
get a few calls returned and some paperwork done before having to leave for
dinner with my parents. I hadn’t been able to reach Miles. Although I wasn’t
looking forward to talking to him, I really just wanted to get it over with. I
left him messages on his cell, at his home, and at both of the offices I had
numbers for. He still hadn’t called back by the time I left to go home.

I stopped by Adam’s office on my way out
and quickly filled him in on my second conversation with David that morning. I
told him where David wanted to meet. “That is the hotel where the Feds are
keeping him, right?”

“Yes, that was where Brett had told me he
was,” I said.

“Well, at least we know it will be safe,”
Adam smiled. “We’ll be surrounded by law enforcement.”

“Comforting,” I said, somewhat
sarcastically. The whole situation felt so covert and surreal to me. I really,
really just wanted things to go back to normal.

I made it home around five thirty. My
parents had had a terrific time at the show and were both in a very good mood,
even my mother. I had the shrimp from the night before still marinating. I put
it under the broiler and prepared rice pilaf and asparagus to go with it. My
mother came in to help set the table, and that was when I told her that Adam
would be joining us. She almost seemed sincere as she said, “Oh, how nice.”

I added some fresh sliced fruit to a bowl
of whipping cream and put it in the freezer to set for dessert. Lastly, I
picked a bottle of white wine that I knew both of my parents liked. As I was
setting the basket of sourdough bread out, the doorbell rang. I heard Daddy
call out that he would get it, and I said to myself, “Here we go…”

CHAPTER
EIGHT

ADAM

I was forty years old and the last time I
met any parents was twenty years ago when I met Marjorie’s. It took a hell of a
lot to make me nervous, but this did it. I took forever getting dressed. I
didn’t want to show up in a black suit and look like I was going to a funeral,
but the lightest one I had was a dark blue. I had this thing about light suits
making me look like a car salesman. I put on the dark blue one and changed my
tie four times, finally settling on a light blue paisley.

I stopped at the florist and bought two
bouquets of flowers, one for Alicia and the other for Lady Winston. Then I went
by the smoke shop and picked up a cigar for Lord Winston. On top of meeting
parents, these two had to be a Lord and a Lady. My stomach was having
convulsions.

When I got to Alicia’s apartment building,
Luis met me at the door. “Don’t you ever have a day off?” I asked him.

He smiled and said, “I work a lot of
overtime. I have five kids to feed.”

I whistled. “Wow, five! That’s a lot of
kids.”

“Tell me,” he said. “The wife is Catholic.
Who knows, we might end up with ten.”

I laughed and clapped him on the back.
“You’re a better man than me, Luis.”

He wished me a good evening before I
nervously rode the elevator up to Alicia’s floor. I was hoping she’d at least
answer the door. Just looking at her pretty face calms me. The Lord Winston
pulled it open instead.

“Well, hello there,” he said in an accent
much stronger than his daughter’s. “You must be Adam.”

“Yes, sir,” I tried juggling the flowers
so I could shake his hand.
 

“Don’t worry about it. I’m John and it’s
nice to meet you.” He smiled warmly.

“You, too, sir.”

“John.”

“John,” I said. I didn’t want to call him
John. It felt wrong somehow, too casual. I stepped inside and saw Alicia in
about twenty-five years come around the corner. Lady Winston was the spitting
image of her daughter, only with darker hair and a few more lines around her
eyes.

  
“Hello
there,” she said.

I held out the flowers that were hers and
she took them. I took the hand she offered and brought it to my lips. “Lady
Winston, it is such a pleasure to finally meet you.” Alicia’s mother at least
seemed pleased with my manners.